Salmonella Outbreak Epidemiology Forecast 2026-2035

Parameter

Insight

Largest Patient Pool

United States

Fastest Growing Country

United Kingdom

High-Risk Population

Young children, older adults, immunocompromised individuals, people exposed to contaminated food or animals, and populations exposed to antimicrobial-resistant strains.

Key Diagnostic Method

Stool culture or culture-independent diagnostic testing followed by serotyping and whole-genome sequencing for outbreak detection and source attribution.

Major Risk Factor

Consumption of contaminated eggs, poultry, meat, fresh produce, sprouts and other ready-to-eat foods, together with contact with infected animals or contaminated environments.

Major gap in the market

Delayed laboratory confirmation, incomplete isolate recovery after molecular testing, fragmented food-chain surveillance and slow linkage of human, food and animal genomic data.

Epidemiology Segment

Key Insights

Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of the Disease

Conventional prevalence is not appropriate for an outbreak. In 2024, the EU recorded 79,703 confirmed human salmonellosis cases, while 1,238 Salmonella foodborne outbreaks generated 10,164 outbreak-associated cases.

Gender-Specific Cases of the Disease

In the 2026 U.S. multistate backyard-poultry outbreaks, 56% of 1,240 cases with sex information were female and 44% male. This reflects an outbreak-specific population rather than a universal sex distribution for salmonellosis.

Age-Specific Cases of the Disease

Young children remain disproportionately affected. In the 2026 U.S. backyard-poultry outbreak series, 22% of 1,250 cases were younger than 5 years. In a separate 2026 turtle-associated outbreak, all 8 cases were children, with a median age of 4 years.

Ethnicity-Wise Cases of the Disease

No harmonized 8MM ethnicity-specific outbreak dataset exists. In the 2026 U.S. backyard-poultry outbreaks, 88% of 776 cases with ethnicity information were non-Hispanic and 13% Hispanic; this reflects the investigated U.S. outbreak population and cannot be extrapolated to the 8MM.

Mortality and Survival Analysis of the Disease

EU surveillance recorded 17 deaths among 10,164 Salmonella outbreak-associated cases in 2024. The 2026 U.S. backyard-poultry outbreak series had 256 hospitalizations among 812 cases with outcome information and 2 deaths. Severe disease is concentrated among young children, older adults, immunocompromised patients and those with invasive infection.

Disease Type

Prevalence

Acute Non-Typhoidal Salmonella Gastroenteritis

The principal outbreak phenotype, characterized by acute diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, nausea and vomiting following NTS exposure.

Invasive Non-Typhoidal Salmonellosis

Approximately 5% of people with nontyphoidal Salmonella infection develop bacteremia or focal invasive infection, including osteomyelitis, meningitis, endovascular infection, or septic arthritis.

Extraintestinal Focal Salmonellosis

NTS infection extending beyond the gastrointestinal tract, including osteoarticular, vascular, urinary, pulmonary or central nervous system infection.

Typhoidal Salmonellosis

In 2024, 383 Salmonella Typhi cases were reported from 35 U.S. jurisdictions. CDC estimates that approximately 5,700 typhoid illnesses occur annually in the United States, indicating substantial underdiagnosis or underreporting relative to reported cases.

Country

Key Insights

United States

FoodNet identified 9,219 laboratory-diagnosed Salmonella infections in 2024 within its surveillance catchment, including 2,769 hospitalizations, 63 deaths and 489 outbreak-associated infections. In 2026, a multistate backyard-poultry investigation identified 1,253 cases across 46 states and Puerto Rico, 256 hospitalizations and 2 deaths by September 24.

Germany

RKI surveillance recorded 29 deaths associated with salmonellosis in 2024. During 2024, 83 explicitly foodborne Salmonella outbreaks involved 990 cases, making Salmonella the largest contributor to explicitly foodborne outbreaks in the German surveillance dataset. A multinational S. Umbilo outbreak involved 98 German cases by September 2024 and was subsequently linked to contaminated rocket salad and baby spinach.

France

France uses voluntary Salmonella notification and a national reference-laboratory system, so its figures are not directly equivalent to countries with mandatory comprehensive notification. A 2024 S. Typhimurium cluster involving three schools in Pays de la Loire produced 41 symptomatic cases among students, including 19 microbiologically and genomically confirmed cases; 49% of affected children were under 5 years. France also contributed cases to the prolonged S. Strathcona multinational outbreak.

Italy

Italy recorded 67 confirmed cases in the 2023-November 2024 S. Strathcona ST2559 multinational outbreak, the largest national contribution to that specific outbreak. In the 2024 investigation, tomatoes from Sicily were identified as the vehicle in Italian outbreaks. Italy also reported a 2024 household S. Thompson outbreak involving an infant and companion animals, demonstrating the importance of animal-associated transmission in addition to foodborne exposure.

Spain

Spain reported 1,234 Salmonella-associated foodborne outbreak cases in 2024, according to the EU foodborne-outbreak surveillance dataset, with Spain among the countries contributing substantial foodborne-outbreak activity. Spain was also the most frequently reported EU country of infection among EU-acquired imported salmonellosis cases, accounting for 311 of 1,431 such cases with known information.

United Kingdom

England recorded 10,406 non-typhoidal Salmonella laboratory reports in 2025, compared with 10,388 in 2024. Thirteen foodborne Salmonella outbreaks were reported in England in 2025, involving 269 affected people, 258 laboratory-confirmed cases and no recorded deaths. Vehicles included imported eggs, shelled eggs, poultry, dairy ice cream, watermelon and raw onions.

Japan

Japan maintains national food-poisoning surveillance and separate laboratory surveillance for Salmonella serovars. MHLW surveillance provides annual foodborne-outbreak data and ongoing human Salmonella serovar monitoring; the 2024-2026 surveillance system documents continuing detection of S. Enteritidis, S. Typhimurium, S. Newport, S. Muenchen, S. Hadar and other serovars. These food-poisoning figures should not be treated as the total burden of Salmonella infection because sporadic laboratory-confirmed infections are monitored separately.

India

ICMR’s 2024 AMR Surveillance Network reported 220 Salmonella-positive fecal specimens among 1,086 specimens tested (20.26%) in its participating surveillance network, compared with 307/773 (39.72%) in 2023. The finding demonstrates ongoing Salmonella detection but is a laboratory-surveillance measure, not national prevalence or an outbreak count.